Are you sure it's a clematis?

It looks to me like trumpet vine, Campsis radicans.

It had a clematis tag on it, but it's never bloomed so I don't know what it is. When I Googled clematis some leaves like mine came up in addition to the smooth edged ones like my sister-in-law's has.

If it was tagged as a clematis, then it was mislabeled :-) That is definitely a vine in the Bignoniaceae family - a crossvine (Bignonia) or a trumpet vine (Campsis)......I'd lean to the trumpet vine. The pinnate foliage is a dead give-away (clems do not have pinnate foliage).

Trumpet vines generally prefer a lot of sun (yours looks to be in a fair amount of shade) and often take a few years to establish before they produce flowers. But hummingbirds love them and they are a nice, colorful vine if you don't mind the aggressiveness of the root shoots and an ability to reseed rather freely.

btw, there is no such thing as a clematis being "too tall to bloom" :-) Some species grow to great heights, including our native C. virginiana, well up into tree tops and bloom profusely. Hybrid clems tend not to grow nearly as large but will bloom without any pruning at all and many gardeners treat them in just that manner.

Looks like Campsis radicans to me. I loved mine in Phoenix, such glorious bright flowers but I'm afraid it would eat my entire yard here in Oregon.

At the Lowe's stores I've been to in Maine, the clems & trumpets are right next to each other, and the trumpets looked bigger, so I geuess it would be easy to mistake them.

Too bad it is too late to take it back.

I got mine as a trade from the plant swap forum about 10 years ago and it took 8 years to flower. I was smaller than the ones Lowes sells tho. I got a yellow one at Lowes last year and it has not flowered yet.

The bad part is that about 2-3 years after starting to flower, it started suckering. It's not a problem yet, as there is room for it where I have it planted, but someday the shovel will come out for the smaller plants.

Marie

Eden, I had a Campsis Radicans planted in my garden many years ago, and I had a terrible time with the suckering. It started slowly, but eventually tried to take over my whole garden, and even my next-door neighbour's. It was sprouting everywhere. I finally decided to remove it, and that was a real eye-opener! The roots were like thick ropes travelling in every direction, as far as 15, maybe more, feet away. It took three years until I finally saw the last of it. I hope you have a LOT of room for yours!
Judith

Don't plant trumpets. They become monsters--taking over everything!

The roots can go down at least a couple feet in the ground, maybe deeper. Tremendous amount of digging required to get rid of them! And you will want to get rid of them after a couple years.

How do I know? I'm still digging them up from where they spread from my neighbor's garage over to my rose bed--and that has been 2 years of digging so far!

Kate

I have plenty of room. My flowerbed goes all the way across the front of my house and is 6 foot or more deep in one area. It also goes down one side as well.

A picture labeled "Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) enveloping house in California" is on a recent link in the Vines forum. See below. The picture is on p 7 of the .pdf directly above the photo of the Biltmore mansion in Asheville, NC, where campsis radicans is shown growing on a trellis.

Here's a link that might be useful: Green Products: The Use of Vines on Buildings
Taken from the following thread in Vines forum: boston ivy on siding- dangerous?

Good luck! I hope you can get that vine to behave!

Best, River